Monday, August 22, 2016

The Wanderers (1979)

Seeing as The Right Stuff and the 1978 incarnation of Invasion of the Bodysnatchers are two films that I hold in extremely high regard, it's a wonder that I waited so long to see the film that Philip Kaufman made in-between those two. But it's also a kind of hard film to track down, so sue me! Anyway, though it comes nowhere close to the perfection of its predecessor and descendant, it's quite a good little picture. You can see elements of Bodysnatchers in a particular chase scene and the plotless focus on charismatic lunkheads clearly presages the Gemini astronauts of The Right Stuff. Sure things peter out a little after the second act climax, but it wins you back pretty easily. All in all it's a fun movie with a few actual thoughts on its mind and it deserves a wider audience. Perhaps the $49.99 price for the DVD on Amazon is holding people back? You can get the disc from Netflix. But like The Wanderers themselves, DVD's are a remnant of a bygone era that just doesn't know that it's time has passed.